


Things you said

by greenteafiend



Series: Tumblr prompts [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 10:02:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 3,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18313355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenteafiend/pseuds/greenteafiend
Summary: Various 'things you said' prompts.





	1. Things you said too quietly

“So you’re leaving? Just like that?” snapped Lance.

Keith sighed. “The Blade can use me, and you guys don’t need me. Not now that Shiro can pilot Black again.” 

“What, so there’s no other reason for you to stay?” Lance said things like this sometimes. Things that made Keith feel as if there was some deeper meaning or point that he was failing to grasp.

“No, there isn’t,” he said helplessly. Keith knew he had outgrown his usefulness to Voltron, and without a purpose, he was superfluous at best, and deadweight at worst. 

If he were more like Shiro—a good leader, the leader the other’s  _ deserved _ —he’d have the right words to say to goodbye to Lance. He’d be able to come up with some platitude that would sound sincere and would make Lance smile at him and stop looking like—like—

Would stop Lance looking at him exactly the way he was looking at Keith that very moment; in a way that made Keith’s stomach twist in discomfort, and his palms sweat.   

But Keith wasn’t Shiro, so he didn’t say anything. He picked up his bag, offered Lance a small tense smile, and walked out. 

He didn’t hear what Lance said—too quietly—as the swished shut behind him.

“ _ Stay.”  _


	2. Things you said I wasn’t meant to hear

“So, what are you gonna do?” said Hunk. 

There came a loud exaggerated sigh that could only have come from Lance. 

Keith found himself smiling despite himself, wondering what Lance was being dramatic about now. At some point, Lance’s theatrics has ceased to be irritating to him, and now he just felt unaccountably fond. 

_ Unaccountably?  _ Nudged Keith’s conscious mockingly, but he ignored it. 

Keith was about to enter the kitchen and announce his presence, when Lance spoke again. His words froze Keith where he stood, just outside the door. 

“What  _ can  _ I do? There’s no way Keith likes me back that way.”  

_ There’s no way Keith likes me back that way. _

_ There’s no way Keith likes me back that way. _

**_There’s no way Keith likes me back that way._ **

Before he knew what he was doing, Keith had marched into the kitchen, past a shocked Hunk, and right up to Lance. 

Lance’s eyes looked very blue like this, all round with shock, and set in a face that was red with embarrassment.

“What way?” Keith demanded. 

“Uhhhh—” 

Lance’s eyes flickered over to Hunk desperately, but Hunk was already halfway out the door. “Cool, I’ll come back later,  _ bye, _ ” he called.

“You weren’t meant to hear that,” said Lance weakly, back thumping against the kitchen wall. Keith hadn’t even realized that he’d crowded Lance up against it, intent as he was on getting an answer to his question.

“What way, Lance?” 

Keith hadn’t ever noticed that Lance had freckles on his nose, it was only appreciable from very close. He watched in fascination as Lance blinked, eyelashes kissing the tops of his cheeks.  

Cheeks that Keith had apparently decided to go ahead and cradle with his hands, thumbs brushing the same sweeping arc Lance’s eyelashes had. 

Lance’s adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed.

“Can I show you?” Lance asked, one hand touching Keith’s waist, sliding around to the small of his back, urging him closer.  _ So _ close that Keith’s entire field of view was filled by Lance’s face. 

“Yeah…” Keith breathed, head tilting. 

Keith got his answer.   
  



	3. Things you said when you were scared

They wouldn’t leave him alone. They wouldn’t stop  _ touching  _ him—his hair, his face, his chest, his arms, his  _ thigh _ —and Keith couldn’t take it. Couldn’t take the way they looked at him, like they wanted to devour him whole. Like they wanted to rip his clothes off, and peel away his skin. Crack open his rib cage. 

But there was nothing Keith could do about it. This alliance was important—more important than Keith’s social anxiety—so all he could do was side-step, and cringe into himself, as his hands started to shake, and his heart began to beat too loud and too fast. Or maybe that was because of the drink they’d pressed into his hands when he’d first arrived? 

Keith’s head felt fuzzy and slow, and he couldn’t seem to track his surroundings, blinking in bewilderment. Had there been alcohol—?

And then Keith felt them touch his lower back, and then drift down further still…

He flinched away, back hitting something—railing? He didn’t remember coming outside—as his muscles tensed up and as his fight-or-flight response decided to pick option three and  _ freeze. _

It made Keith feel ashamed.  _ Weak. _

Why was he letting this happen? Why couldn’t he think of something to do that wouldn’t ruin all the diplomatic headway Allura had made? Why was his head so clouded?

That was when Lance popped up, like water in a desert. 

“Yo, Shiro’s looking for you! Where have you—”

“B-boyfriend!” Keith blurted, like a drowning person seizing a a lifering. 

Both the alien that had cornered Keith here on the secluded balcony, and Lance, stared at him in confusion.

Keith swallowed. He could make this up to Lance, and he could endure the teasing he was certain he would cop later, but right then, he needed it to  _ stop.  _ Lance was safe, and he was  _ scared.  _   
  
“This is my—my boyfriend, Lance.” Keith’s voice shook, and he felt so sick with nerves that he couldn’t look either of them in the eye. 

There was a moment of silence, during which Keith felt certain his heart was going to beat right out of his chest, but then an arm wrapped around Keith’s shoulders, and the familiar clean scent of the altean soap they used on the castle filling his nostrils.  

“Is this guy bothering you, babe?” Lance sounded falsely cheery. His arm tightened, tucking Keith close. Tucking him away from the alien. 

Keith was so grateful he could cry, and he shamelessly turned and buried his face in Lance’s collar, hands fisting the front of Lance’s nice blue dress shirt.

“We were just getting to know each other—” The alien had an oily voice, and the sound of it made Keith instinctively try to press his face closer to Lance, “—I  _ assure  _ you,  _ nothing _ untoward—”  

“Would you go away?” Lance interrupted. Lance was, as a rule, unfailingly friendly towards any aliens they met, so it was startling to Keith to hear him speak so sharply. 

“ _ Excuse _ me?”

“Did I stutter?” 

There was an offended sniff, and then a rustle of fabric as the alien left. Keith’s shoulders slumped in relief.  

He didn’t want to step away from the comfort of Lance’s arms; it felt like he was freezing cold everywhere except where they were pressed together. Just when he’d worked up himself up to moving away, Lance spoke. 

“Keith, you’re  _ shaking,  _ are you alright? Did they do anything to you?” The words were accompanied by Lance wrapping his arms around Keith more securely, with one hand coming to rest in the middle of his back, and the other on the back of his head. 

The abrupt change from heart-racing anxiety and discomfort to warmth and safety was dizzying; it felt so nice to be held that Keith shivered. 

“I’m sorry,” Keith mumbled. 

“Hey, no, you haven’t done anything wrong. Tell me what happened,” Lance urged. 

“Nothing—nothing  _ bad. _ Just… they just kept—” Keith sniffed, what was wrong with him? “—kept  _ touching  _ me. It’s stupid. I—I didn’t know—I  _ should’ve _ known how to—how to make them stop—”       

“Hey, shh, it’s okay. You’re okay,” murmured Lance, rubbing circles between his shoulder blades. “Wanna get out of here?”

“What about the alliance?” asked Keith tentatively.  

“ _ Fuck  _ the alliance,” said Lance emphatically. “Allura has things under control. C’mon, I’m taking you back to the castle. It’s the least I can do as your fake boyfriend,” Lance tone was gently teasing, lacking any of his usual bite, and Keith was endlessly grateful.

“Thank you, Lance,” he said sincerely, pulling back look Lance in the eye, and hopefully impress how much this meant to him. How much Lance’s care and consideration meant to him.

Lance kept his arm clamped tightly over Keith’s shoulders as they walked back to the castle.

 


	4. Things you said with too many miles between us

It wasn’t a scheduled time for him to receive a call; that should have tipped Keith off that something wasn’t right. Keith had just been happy that he was getting to speak to everyone again—he missed them.

But then, not everyone was there—it was just Lance, head bowed.

But then, Keith saw his  _ face.  _

“You need to come back,” said Lance, voice rough like sandpaper, expression grave. It didn’t suit him.

“What happened? Where’s everyone else?” Keith asked. 

Lance’s lips pressed into a hard line. 

“Allura and Coran, they’re in the infirmary. They’re—they’re putting e-everyone into pods.” 

Keith gasped.

“Hunk, Pidge,  _ and  _ Shiro? Are they gonna be okay? What happened to them?”

“Pidge and Hunk, they—they were attacked. ‘Lura says they’ll be okay in a few days.”

“And Shiro?” prompted Keith impatiently. 

To Keith’s horror, Lance’s eyes welled up with tears. 

“I—I shot him.” Lance seemed to crumple before Keith’s eyes, one hand snapping up to cover his own mouth as he desperately tried to choke down his sobs. 

Keith was reeling too, blinking in confusion.

“What?” he croaked.     

Lance squeezed his eyes shut and took several deep breaths to calm himself before removing his hand from his mouth. 

The tear tracks on his cheeks glistened under the fluorescent lights of the bridge.

“He attacked Hunk and Pidge. I—I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t let him—I had to make him stop—”

“Will he be okay?” Keith interrupted. Lance nodded, and Keith let out a shuddery sigh of relief.    

“Didn’t hit anything important or delicate. Please,  _ please,  _ come back, Keith. I— _ we  _ need you. Please.”  

Keith didn’t even need to think about it.

“I’m on my way.”


	5. Things you said when you thought I was asleep

“Do you want me to take him?” 

The words pulled Keith out of a dream, and into the liminal space between sleeping and wakefulness. He was too comfortable to do anything, curled up on top of something wonderfully firm and warm. Something  _ safe.  _ He remained limp, limbs soft and enervated, his eyelids too heavy to open. 

“Na, I got him.” The voice rumbled against Keith’s cheek, where his face was pressed, while a hand stroked his hair, brushing it back from his forehead. 

Keith was on the cusp of falling back into his dream, the rhythmic motion of that hand lulling him, when it stopped abruptly. 

Keith whined plaintively, low in his throat, until the hand came back and resumed petting him. He settled down immediately, despite hearing chuckling. He could  _ feel _ the chuckling too, where his cheek was pressed.

“Well that’s adorable.”

There was a pause.

“Hunk, don’t you  _ dare _ ever tell him I said that, I’ll deny it to my grave.”

Keith tumbled back back into his dream, and this time he stayed there.

He didn’t wake the second time Lance stopped stroking his hair, nor when Lance lifted him and carried him back to his room. 

He didn’t wake when he was placed on his bed and tucked into his blankets, nor when a gentle kiss was pressed against his forehead. 

Keith slept soundly, and had sweet, sweet dreams about ocean blue eyes, gentle hands in his hair, and fond laughter.


	6. Things you didn’t say at all

Lance felt the couch dip beside him as someone sat down. He could tell it was Keith, freshly showered, by the clean scent of soap in the air.

Keith didn’t say a word, and Lance was playing a game on his tablet, so he didn’t say anything either, happy to sit together in companionable silence.  

Or at least, Lance had  _ thought  _ it was a companionable silence; he notice Keith fidgeting and staring at him. He didn’t notice him shuffle closer either, not until he’d shifted close enough that their thighs were pressed together. 

“Do you need something?” Lance asked, without taking his eyes off his game.

“...No…” said Keith. 

Keith leaned in so their shoulders were pressed together too. 

“Are you  _ sure  _ you don’t need anything?” asked Lance.

“...Yes…”

There was silence for a few minutes until Keith let out a small huff. Lance spared him a glance, and caught him crossing his arms over his chest, while his brows furrowed in frustration. He looked adorable when he pouted like that, and Lance knew why he was doing it.

He paused his game and set the tablet aside, before wrapping an arm around Keith’s shoulder and pulling him in for a hug. 

Keith melted into, looping his arms around Lance’s waist and burying his face in the space underneath Lance’s chin, as if he’d been  _ waiting  _ for the chance to do so.

Lance stroked Keith’s hair, eliciting a tiny little sigh of contentment. Keith was ridiculously endearing when he was soft and affectionate like this.  

“You know, you can just  _ ask  _ if you want a hug, right? Anytime you want,” said Lance, half serious, half amused, dropping a kiss on the top of Keith’s head. 

As cute as it was when Keith pouted, and wordlessly hinted at things, in his vague, grumpy, way, it worried Lance that Keith was so often unable to just  _ ask  _ for what he needed.

“I know,” mumbled Keith, muffled into Lance’s shirt.

Lance would give him the moon. He’d give him every star in the sky, he’d give him the whole  _ world, _ if only Keith would  _ ask  _ for it. 


	7. Things you said when you were crying

He hurt. All over. 

Where was he? What was happening? 

He tried to move, but that hurt more. A plaintive whimper echoed in his head—it took him a few moments to realise that it was a sound he was making out loud, and several more to force himself to stop.

“Shh, y-you’re okay, Keith. I got you buddy, don’t—don’t move.” 

“—’ance?”

Gentle hands on his face, stroking his hair back from his sweaty forehead. Fingers on his scalp, searching through his hair. A low curse, something wet the sticky dripping down his neck. The smell of rust. 

Lance’s fingertips brushed something painful—Keith whimpered, and the touch withdrew. 

“Can you open your eyes for me?” 

It took every bit of energy Keith possessed to obey Lance’s request. 

Lance’s face appeared above him, blurry at first, until Keith had blinked a half a dozen times. Blue. So blue—had Lance’s eyes always been so vivid? They were the only thing Keith seemed able to focus on, and they were brimming with tears, and terror.

It was instinctive for Keith to want to raise an arm up towards him—tears looked wrong on Lance’s face—but the movement made something in his torso  _ pull,  _ and it was agony.

“Don’t move!” Lance hissed, putting a hand on Keith’s wrist to hold him still.

“Hurts,” Keith whimpered, eyelids fluttering—they were so heavy. 

“I know, buddy. I’m—I’m so sorry. The others are on their way for us, okay? Just stay with me.”

Lance’s hand went back to the front of Keith’s head, petting his hair out of his face, and Keith realised with a jolt that Lance was cradling him in his lap. 

“You—you’re holding me.”

“Yeah, wish it was under different circumstances, but—”

“You’re crying,” Keith interrupted. 

“I’m not,” Lance retorted.

The world was slipping through Keith’s fingers, diming and curling around the edges of his vision.

“No, no, no, Keith, come back—”

“I’m dying,” he said. He felt Lance’s breathing hitch, saw his shoulders shake. Could tell he was swallowing down a sob when he slapping a hand over his own mouth.

That meant he’d stopped stroking Keith’s hair. It was the only thing distracting Keith from how much he hurt, and he couldn’t stop the distressed whimper from bubbling up in his throat at it’s loss.

Lance very quickly composed himself and put his hand back.     

“Not you aren’t,” Lance snapped, the tone of his word belying the gentleness of his fingers in Keith’s hair. 

If he wasn’t dying, then why did everything hurt? Why was Lance holding him, and crying? Why did he want to close his eyes and rest so bad...

“Hey.  _ No _ . Stay awake, Kogane, that’s an order.” Lance tapped his cheek, forcing Keith’s eyes to reopen. Keith groaned unhappily.  

“C’mon, man. Talk to me,” Lance urged.

“Why… why are you crying?” Keith asked, not really registering anymore what he was saying. Only that Lance wanted him to speak, and those words were already present in his mind.

“Because I’m scared. Because I’m worried for you—”

“Be-because I’m dying—” 

“ _ You’re not dying, Keith. _ I won’t  _ let  _ you,” said Lance viciously. Wetly. 

“I won’t let you.”

  
  



	8. Things you said through your teeth

Since becoming the Red Paladin, and right-hand-man to the Black Paladin, Lance liked to think that he’d gained a much better understanding of Keith. But nothing he’d learned gave him any insight into the way Keith was acting right then.

“Sooo, what did you drag me out here to tell me?” he asked, staring at Keith apprehensively.

Keith was  _ fidgeting _ , his fists clenching and unclenching by his side, as he shifted his weight restlessly from foot to foot. He looked  _ sick  _ with nerves, pale, with his mouth twisted into a grimace like he had something extremely unpleasant to say.

Something unpleasant to say to _Lance_ specifically, seeing as he’d gone out of his way to make sure they were alone where no one would overhear them.

Lance wracked his brains for something he might have done, but Keith hadn’t ever had a problem telling Lance when he thought he was doing something wrong in the past, so it didn’t make sense for him to twist himself up into knots like this if it was that. 

“Keith?” said Lance, getting more and more tense and alarmed the longer Keith stood there with that look on his face. 

“I have to tell you something,” Keith blurted. 

“Uh,  _ yeah _ , I  _ know _ . That’s what you said when you grabbed me and brought me out here. Are you gonna tell me, or what?” 

Keith crossed his arms over his chest— _ finally,  _ a gesture Lance was familiar with—and glared at a spot on the ground just to Lance’s left. 

“I’m—I’m not telling you because I expect you to do anything about it, I know you won’t want to. Which is  _ fine. _ I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable either, I just—I think I’ll get over it faster if—if I just  _ say  _ it.” 

Was that meant to mean something to Lance? He was more confused than ever. 

“Keith, it’s making me uncomfortable how long it’s taking you to just spit whatever it is out—” his voice slid into his signature whine (the one younger sibling always perfected) “—can you hurry up? Hunk’s making those savory dumplings for dinner and if we don’t get back soon they’ll be all gone, and I’ll never forgive you for making me miss out—”

“Fine!” cried Keith, throwing up his hands in agitation. “It’s stupid anyway. I—I—” Keith broke off, lips pressing together into a thin line as he seemed struggle with himself internally.

“You—?” prompted Lance, leaning in. 

Keith spoke through his teeth, as if saying the very words pained him. “I—I  like you.” 

If that sentence aimed at Lance wasn’t enough of a shock to his system, Keith  _ blushed,  _ his perfect cheekbones turning a red as Lance’s lion; there was no misunderstanding what kind of ‘like’ Keith meant. 

“W- _ what?! _ No—no  _ way—!”  _ Lance exclaimed. 

“That’s all. You can go eat dumplings now, and—and forget about it, ” said Keith, tone clipped, and then he spun on his heel to rush away.

If he thought he could just  _ drop _ something of that magnitude on Lance, and then run away, Keith had another thing coming to him. 

“Wait, wait, wait, not so fast—” Lance snagged him by the elbow to stop him. “I have  _ questions,  _ Keith. For example—” What Lance was going to say died in his throat when he saw Keith’s face. It was crumpled in misery, and his eyes were shiny. He blinked rapidly, as if he was desperately trying to hold back tears.

“Keith…” said Lance softly. Helplessly. 

Keith ripped his arm away. He sniffed.

“I’ll get over it,” he said, like he was trying to convince himself, and then he fled.  

Lance stared at the door Keith had disappeared through, as something unlocked in his chest. A soft, fluttering realization that Lance had been ignoring for a very very long time...  

“What if… what if I don’t want you to?” he whispered to himself. 

He headed for the the door, suddenly filled with purpose—he needed to find Keith.  

 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me [here](https://greenteafiend.tumblr.com/) if you like.


End file.
